“The Definitive Tom Jones 1964-2002” by Tom Jones

Generous 4 CD retrospective that neatly summarizes career of Welsh singer who endured in fickle business so long that finally he might even get canonized. Yeah, I know, screaming housewives and all, scrap the surface though and the fact is guy was always magnificent, powerhouse vocalist who bulldozed trough anything that came his way and as this compilation testifies, there is still no music genre that Jones couldn’t tackle, be it jolliest of 1960s pop, Las Vegas swing, country ballad, disco or anything you could think of. 

Sheer diversity of music presented here also means that this might be CD box you might constantly return to - usually boxed music rarely excite me as they tend to show how much majority of artists have stuck in their ways, however with this one I have no problem whatsoever because its literary one feel-good highlight after another. In fact, this might be the only CD box in my collection that I actually play quite often and constantly find endearing. Versatile as hell, Jones always showed clear affection to old school R&B and no matter what show-biz trappings were and all that cellophane around him, that voice was always there, in fact all these stylistic wanderings eventually paid off handsomely as resulting music never gets predictable, it transcends genres, decades and trends to the point that listener might find himself truly awed with guy’s guts and perseverance. Vocally he was bomb from the very start - already noted similarities with Elvis Presley are not only superficial as they both delighted in both trashiest and best of popular music with same seriousness but where Presley eventually ended as parody of himself, Jones continued from strength to strength and lived long enough to achieve critical reassessment. If anything, the most astonishing thing about this CD box is how well his voice survived decades.

Few years ago I went to hear him live in concert - to my surprise, silver-haired veteran on the stage roared like a lion and playfully turned old favourites inside out in such imaginative way that they got completely new dresses (if I remember correctly, “Delilah” became full-bloodied flamenco), the voice was exactly like on old records and I could just bow down in amazement. That this retrospective was not the end and he still continued is one of the true marvels, in fact later albums found him even more daring in choices that encompassed gospel and blues. One of the best voices in pop music, period.